Kingfishers what settings

[Tinopener]

Hi all
Here's a question for the bird photographers have been invited up to Norwich where a fried has a few acres of fen land there is a hide there and kingfishers. I will be taking the
100-400 and 200-600 what would the best settings to use as I don't want to mess up on taking photos of these majestic birds .... Thank you Gary

 

[Tim Mayo]

It's hard to say because your settings will be influenced by the light conditions at the time. Will they mostly be perched or are diving shots possible at this hide?

If you are in a hide then you can use a gimbal to help steady your shots or rest the camera on something if you don't have a gimbal, this will help you to lower the shutter speed for perched shots if the light is poor.

Personally I'd just go with the max aperture or a third of a stop down and auto ISO. For perched shots 1/1000s is a good starting point if they are nice and still, but with a tripod you could get away with 1/100s if it's not too windy. Best to check your shots carefully though. You'll probably want a faster speed of around 1/2000s if you want to freeze them whacking a fish about and swallowing it.

For diving shots or in flight you'll want to go as fast as you can get away with whilst keeping your ISO sensible. Probably around 1/4000s going into the water but you'd really want to keep your ISO under 10000 if you want any detail. It's easier to get them coming out of the water because they are slower and a shutter speed of around 1/2000s will probably be fine.

It's best to experiment though and keep checking your shots, as you may need to change your settings depending on the conditions.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm neither bird man nor bird photographer, but I used to see kingfishers occasionally in a London park. You can know in advance from your friend how far away the hide is from the birds, but you might not need to be very far off: just wondering if the 200-600 might be overkill. But better to have it than to wish you did!

An actual-birdwatcher friend used to see them more often than I did. Awareness and quickness of eye. They are damned fast, there for a moment and gone. A flash of blue.

(For the Londoners here, I'm talking about Wanstead Park)